The Guest in my Dungeon
by Creative Katherine
Summary: L had a special place. A place used to interrogate and lock people up for a short amount of time. This place was secret for if the law knew, indeed if Watari knew, it would make things difficult for L. Open for interpretations on who L's talking to. Short oneshot collaboration done with good friend Lady-Darkstreak


**Hey Folks! This is CreativeKatherine. This is a collaboration with a good ol' friend, Lady-Darkstreak. I really enjoyed working on this and we hope you enjoy reading! If you do read this, please leave a review saying who you think it might be that L is talking to. Me and Lady-Darkstreak would _really_ love to hear what you think.**

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**The Guest in my Dungeon **  
**By Lady-Darkstreak & CreativeKatherine.**

Deep in the bowels of one of L's many houses, L had a special place. Though this wasn't a happy place, L had none of those. This was a place used to interrogate and lock people up to get information out of them for a short period of time- even though the detainees themselves would tell you otherwise.

This place was secret for if the law knew, indeed, even if Watari knew, it would make things difficult for L. For L knew that in the pursuit of justice, sometimes rules had to be broken.

L's new guest was displeased at the situation he'd been put into. L had to keep him tied up. His guest had already proved untrustworthy when left to roam free in his cell.

It was many hours later when L decided to revisit his guest. The man sat in silence, displaying no form of movement. His head hung low and his face was blank, not showing any signs of emotion. But L being as observant as he was, could spot under a curtain of hair, the glare from the man's tired eyes that could not be mistaken for anything but pure anger.

"Why am I here?" The man questioned, his voice strained by exhaustion.

"You are here because you have broken laws, many laws." L answered simply, coming to sit in his signature eagle-crouch position from outside of the man's barred cell.

"I only did what I had to do."

"That is no excuse. It will never be ample excuse for your actions. You and I are both fully aware that you understand the laws, and yet, you deliberately chose to break them on this occasion."

"You didn't fully answer my question as to why I'm here, we both know it's more then just you confirming your suspicions on what I've done." The man's head lifted, his eyes now staring dangerously in to L's as if he was some form of hungry animal, ready to be let loose to feast on someone's carcass. "I'm wondering why you haven't just thrown me to the cops and moved on to your next case already. It's what you usually do." His teeth were now bared and his voice had risen to the point that it was now echoing off the dark and empty walls of the cell. "You're so fucking single-minded you've never given a shit about anyone, so why the fuck start with me? What do you want?!"

After a few moments of silence to let the man calm down, L began chewing his thumbnail, the noise of teeth biting through nail now being the only thing heard in the room. "…I want to know why." He stated finally.

The man snorted, shaking his head he emitted a small, humorless chuckle. "You've lost me."

"Then I will repeat the sent-"

"Just shut up for once." The bound man spat, cutting L off. "You know why. I'm sure you've studied me long enough to understand how I think."

"You are mistaken. If I knew for sure why you did it, then I would not be detaining you here at all."

"Oh, deep down you already know the answer, L, so don't give the impression you don't." The man growled, leaning forward towards L's direction, making the ropes that kept him pinned in place give out eerie creaks. "It would just be insulting us both."

"Hmm…" L cocked his head, unperturbed from the intimidating display from the tied-up man. "…Admittedly I do have some vague idea."

"Of course you do! We both know that. Just cut the bullshit for once! I'm in no mood for your games this time!"

L's barely visible eyebrows rose and he took his thumb away from his lips. "I did not expect you to use such explicit language in your current predicament. I thought you would, at the very least, be more co-operative then this judging by your level of intelligence." L's stony eyes scanned his prisoner up and down, "I can only put a majority of your actions down to the fact that you have not had any sustenance for over seventy-two hours, but concerning the other half, you're still accountable for your behavior, therefore I want to make you fully aware that If you consider adopting a more rational level of civility throughout your time here then you will have my word that this will not go on for any longer than necessary."

The man resumed being silent, appearing to be calming down. Although, curiously, his breathing was becoming erratic.

L took a moment to think. "Giving me the information I require is inevitable. You know you will not leave here until you do, so do you not think it is more fitting to just tell me right now and save us both the time and trouble?"

"…" The man's eyes stayed unmoving, still glaring daggers at L's figure. If looks could kill, L could have sworn he would have been hung, drawn and quartered by now.

Silence once again swept over the room like a heavy fog, the air growing increasingly intense by the minutes. At seeing no form of response, L stood up, his back now facing the man as he shuffled wordlessly towards the entrance of the room with his hands shoved carelessly in his jeans pockets. He stopped just before the rusty metal door and turned his head slightly to the side.

"…However, perhaps we are missing the key points here. Might I also remind you that if you do co-operate with me, there is a ninety-six percent possibility that I could achieve you a Prison sentence instead of the death penalty. Not only that, but your sentence could be greatly reduced depending on the level of your agreeability to cooperate." L paused a moment to let this sink in. "Please do take this into consideration before the next time I see you. You have nothing else to gain from this, but much more to loose."

L drew up one hand and placed his thumb and forefinger on the thin metal handle of the door. He was just about to open it when he was brought out of his thoughts by a voice.

"…You're lying as usual L."

L's eyes rolled to the corner of his vision in the direction of the seated man. His head soon followed.

"Excuse me?"

"This isn't about you wanting to confirm why you think I did it. You already know why I did it."

L turned back to him. "Explain yourself."

"You're keeping me here just so you've got someone to talk to. You need to find someone who's worse off than you are but you can't. It doesn't matter how long you search, you can build a fucking time machine and go back, forward, or even sideways to some other fucking world and you still won't find what you're looking for." He sat back, now relaxing in his chair. "You'll never be able to fit in, love, or have a family." He chuckled darkly. "But best of all, you'll never know the feeling of acceptance. What it feels like to live. And you know that just as well as you know all the answers to those little pointless questions you've been asking me. Why? That's a pathetic question, even for you."

L retook those few small steps to the cell and laced his hands around the bars. "Whilst I am alive and able, I will continue to bring criminals to justice every day, just like I have always done. This is more than you will ever accomplish. You had the potential to do good, but you threw this opportunity away and instead turned yourself into another petty criminal."

"True that you bring people to justice but L, tell me, who have you saved?" He shifted his chair, making it give off eerie creaking noises as the legs dragged across the floor closer towards L. "Victims are fucking victims because you can't save them. Even though they cry out for help, though they beg and plead, you turn your back on all of them because you can't do shit about it."

L frowned. "Stop swearing."

"Then again, even if you could do something, would you even bother anyway? You turned your back on the one person who actually asked for your help." He flashed a knowing grimace. "I bet you didn't even have the guts to go and see him before he was ki~"

"That is none of your concern." L cut in. "You, as well as the other letters, know not to mention Beyond Birthday." He then began detaching himself from the bars, obviously annoyed.

The man gave a small smug smile. "Hm, so, it's still a touchy subject then."

L didn't answer. Instead he turned his back to the man once again, looking towards the entrance. It appeared he had grown bored of the conversation.

Before L could take a step, "…L."

"…Yes?"

The man's head dropped to his chest. He closed his eyes and sighed. "…Fine. I give up. Whatever you want you can have it. It's not like I got anything better to do, anyway. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry." He strained to look up at L's face who had turned to him once again. "But for the record, just answer one thing for me."

L blinked, his thumb already at his bottom lip. He hunched down to his captive's level. Once again, out of habit, he unconsciously began to chew his thumbnail.

"...This question being?"

The guest fidgeted in his seat and for after a long, dragged out pause, "…Am I worth saving, L? Tell me that much, please."

L stopped chewing his thumbnail. A long silence was L's cold response.


End file.
